Spike Jonze' Los Angeles of the 'slight' future is so convincing in its atmosphere of high tech isolation, that it barely raises an eyebrow when the main character (Joaquin Phoenix) tells friends that his girlfriend is an operating system named Samantha (Scarlet Johansson). The director of Being John Malkovich and Where the Wild Things Are soars in his creation of a world where Phoenix works as a letter-writer for those who have lost the skill, and relaxes with a cheeky video game that takes up most of his living room. It is his loneliness that leads him to a romance with the sultry-voiced OS, who is so very close to being human. 125 min.

"...a risky high dive off the big board with a plot that sounds like a gimmick but ends up haunting, odd and a bit wonderful." - Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times.